Palm leaves and fishing line
by Sparkly Faerie
Summary: The last time Sora had been at the New Years festival, he'd been thirteen. He only vaguely remembered it, the details fuzzy through a haze of sleepiness and general disinterest. He'd never been able to make it to midnight as a kid. This year, he was wide-awake as the new year approached, for perhaps the first time in his life.


**Happy Sokai day! This was a prompt by soraspromise on Tumblr/seasidehearts here on FF. Net.**

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**Disclaimer: **I do not own Kingdom Hearts or anything associated with it. All rights to Kingdom Hearts and affiliated characters belong to Disney and Square Enix.

**Summary:** The last time Sora had been at the New Years festival, he'd been thirteen. He only vaguely remembered it, the details fuzzy through a haze of sleepiness and general disinterest. He'd never been able to make it to midnight as a kid. This year, he was wide-awake as the new year approached, for perhaps the first time in his life.

**Rating:** K

**Genre:** General/Romance

**Pairings: **SoKai

**World:** Destiny Islands. Post KH-2, pre-KH3D.

**Prompt:** "Midnight"

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**Palm leaves and fishing line**

The last time Sora had been at the New Years festival, he'd been thirteen. He only vaguely remembered it, the details fuzzy through a haze of sleepiness and general disinterest. He'd never been able to make it to midnight as a kid.

This year, at sixteen, Sora was wide-awake as the new year approached, for perhaps the first time in his life. He'd spent the evening with Riku and Kairi, rather than his parents, milling through the stalls and competing with Riku at the game booths. Now, he and Riku hung back, waiting for Kairi to finish weaving her poppet out of palm tree leaves and fishing line. They already had theirs, not as fussy as their companion about what they looked like.

"Finished!" Kairi exclaimed, jumping up from the craft table and brandishing her carefully-made doll. "C'mon, let's get places by the bonfire."

'The bonfire' was a large pit dug into the beach, in which stacks of firewood had been carefully arranged; Sora had seen some of the committee members spraying it with boat fuel earlier, to help it catch and burn faster. They pushed through the crowds to get spots on the very edge of the safe distance, faces turned up to the Mayor's podium as he began his address.

Kairi's adoptive father gave the usual speech of thanks, and proceeded to touch a flaming torch to the base of the fire pit. Handing the torch off, now that his ceremonial duty was done, he stepped down as a younger man ran around the pit and ignited it at various other points. They stood and watched it burn for a few minutes, some people checking their watches at regular intervals.

Sora jumped as the bell signaling the new year tolled. Standing wedged between Kairi and Riku, he raised the head of his hastily-made leaf puppet to his lips, wondering what to wish for. On his left, Riku lowered his and tossed it into the fire, moving away and leaving he and Kairi by the fireside. Around them, people were tossing their puppets into the fire and departing, headed either back to the stalls or for home.

He snuck a glance at Kairi out of the corner of his eye. Her eyes were closed, her hair falling forward, slightly hiding the puppet that she held to her lips. Slowly, she opened her eyes and tossed it into the fire, a small smile on her lips. He forced himself to look away, not wanting her to catch him admiring the way her hair shined in the flickering firelight.

Making his wish, he tossed the puppet into the fire and watched it burn for a few moments.

He was surprised, but not startled, to feel a smaller hand slide into his. Kairi hummed as she leaned her head on his shoulder, her eyes trained on the fire. Silently, he entwined his fingers with hers. "What'd you wish for?" He asked absently, glancing down at the top of her head.

She shook her head. "Not telling." She looked up at him. "It wont come true, otherwise."

Grinning, Sora tugged on her hand. "C'mon, let's go find Riku. I think he might've ditched us."

"But," Kairi attempted to tug him in the other direction, away from where he could see Riku's hair disappearing into the crowd, "would that be such a terrible thing?"

Grinning, Sora tripped after her without another word of protest.


End file.
